Biographies

Personality

Kuro is a reserved and stoic young man who often behaves less like a teenager and more like a middle-aged person. Though polite and cordial in formal situations, he’s clueless and uncomfortable during casual interactions due to his sheltered upbringing. He’s extremely out of touch with modern society; he frequently talks about “the youth” despite being young himself, and he struggles to understand the nuances of popular culture. He is surprisingly open-minded and willing to try new things despite this, as he believes traditions such as the tea ceremony must adapt in order to survive. Unfortunately for his unit, his fascination with the modern world sometimes manifests itself in verbose and confusing monologues.

Beneath his cool exterior, Kuro is surprisingly hot-blooded. Although he usually serves as the rational head in Sai’s antics, he is easily swept up in competition and prone to making rash decisions when he becomes engrossed in a game. His competitiveness extends to his idol duties as well, and as a result he possesses an incredibly strong work ethic. He believes skill isn’t something one is born with, but rather the product of rigorous practice and work; the word “talent,” in his opinion, is only used to make the situation more palatable. This attitude often causes him to overwork himself, as he views himself as Sai’s weakest link due to his inexperience, but encouragement from his unit has helped him gain more self-confidence over time.

Kuro’s overly serious demeanor makes him an easy target for Shoma and Kirio’s pranking, and he’s notoriously short-tempered. He often nags his unit for making a mess or not taking things seriously. However, he’s warm-hearted under his awkwardness; his scolding is well-intentioned, and, even then, he’s become significantly less harsh since Sai first formed. He won’t hesitate to give advice and tough love to those who need it, and he enjoys making tea for his colleagues to cheer them up.

Backstory

Kuro is the youngest in a long line of tea ceremony preparers. His family is rather wealthy and well-known for its tea, so he believes his path in life was decided for him when he was born into the Kiyosumi name. Regardless, he still holds a deep love for the art of the tea ceremony, a love he says first emerged in an incident in his childhood where he accidentally broke one of his father’s favorite tea bowls. His father, instead of chastising him, repaired the ceramic with gold lacquer. Kuro was fascinated by the process as well as the resulting piece of art, and remembers the incident as the first time he was moved by tea ceremonies.

Prior to becoming an idol, Kuro had already been making attempts to educate laypeople about tea ceremonies by organizing community tea ceremony lessons against the wishes of his grandfather. He was approached by the Producer after one of these lessons and offered a job with 315 Production. Although he initially believed the idol world was one with no place for him in it, after getting into an argument with his grandfather, he resolved to spread the way of tea by any means necessary and decided to sign a contract, despite not fully understanding what being an idol would entail.

Kuro dislikes talking about his family and becomes stressed whenever the subject is mentioned. However, this is less due to resentment and more due to the fact that he values his family, so their disapproval of his actions and the resulting strain on their relationship pain him immensely. In the Deep Green event, he confronted his grandfather at a tea ceremony campaign gathering. Although his grandfather's disapproval remained unchanged, he admitted that Sai was effective in encouraging interest in tea ceremonies. Kuro was encouraged by this exchange, and he continues to hope that he can continue to make amends with his family and one day earn their full endorsement.

Trivia and Fan Culture

Trivia

He enjoys solitude and there is little that brings him more pleasure than taking time to himself in the bath. He collects bath products and has received some from fans, although he feels it would be a waste to use them so he keeps them as decoration in his room.

Although he became an idol to foster interest in Japanese culture, he isn’t ignorant regarding the rest of the world. He likes studying world history and trying tea from abroad.

He’s easily frightened, particularly of ghosts.

He loves sweets, but detests shiitake mushrooms. His hatred is so strong that he expresses disgust (and sometimes anger) at the mere mention of them.